Talking Politics | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Talking Politics

TigerMasochist said:
Yep. That happens with just about all pollies from especially the major parties. Plenty of backside wiping to keep the departing team members feeling much loved.
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I have been in and around public sector boards for quite a few years now, under both Labor and LNP. Public sector Board appointments are done by an "independent body" but all I can say is that it is amazing the number of Board members who don't get nominated for another term who happen to be associated with the opposition party and then get replaced by someone who is. Spouses and ex-staffers of government MPs are particularly popular, all well qualified of course :cool:

It stinks
 
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Sintiger said:
Sorry shouldn’t use terms like think tank and Tim Smith in the same sentence
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Ha ha, reminds me of a funny story. I got picked up hitchhiking by Bob Katter many years ago. Back when I was young, and people used to hitchhike. North Qld late 1990s. I was a Uni student, it was teeming down, couldn't get a lift in the middle of nowhere, big statesman pulls up and the boot pops. I put backpack in the boot and get in, drenched, he asks me what I do. Studying Environmental Science at Uni. Ha ha he says, "isn't that a contradiction in terms, a bit like a National Party Think Tank". It was a good joke, well rehearsed, but good nonetheless. He was a very pleasant travelling companion. Drove 20km out of his way to drop me off.
 
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Andrews wouldn't have been silly enough to be close to the red shirts thing to be implicated, although . . . I am constantly amazed at how much evidence pollies leave behind when they do things like branch stacking and various other nefarious pursuits.

The thing that does get me is the kerfuffle about branch stacking - really? It goes on in all political parties. Staffers for MPs are always doing party work, paid for by taxpayers.

Not saying this is right (it stinks) but I reckon the electorate is way too cynical about this to really be surprised or shocked. I reckon most of us assume MP's staff are spending a hell of a lot of their working day doing things for the party.

DS
 
DavidSSS said:
The thing that does get me is the kerfuffle about branch stacking - really? It goes on in all political parties. Staffers for MPs are always doing party work, paid for by taxpayers.
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Scomo got into parliament via branch stacking.
 
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DavidSSS said:
Andrews wouldn't have been silly enough to be close to the red shirts thing to be implicated, although . . . I am constantly amazed at how much evidence pollies leave behind when they do things like branch stacking and various other nefarious pursuits.

The thing that does get me is the kerfuffle about branch stacking - really? It goes on in all political parties. Staffers for MPs are always doing party work, paid for by taxpayers.

Not saying this is right (it stinks) but I reckon the electorate is way too cynical about this to really be surprised or shocked. I reckon most of us assume MP's staff are spending a hell of a lot of their working day doing things for the party.

DS
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Sounds a bit like pork barrelling. Everyone does it, why are we surprised?
 
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The Big Richo said:
Having a chat over a beer with a mate today and we tried to think of the last time an Australian PM did something that was respected on a world stage.

After deliberation we ended up back to Howard's gun reform, and before that maybe Hawke and Medicare or Keating and Superannuation.

It turned out to be a pretty depressing conversation.
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Gillard NDIS
 
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MD Jazz said:
Sounds a bit like pork barrelling. Everyone does it, why are we surprised?
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Yeah I don't get the angst over pork barrelling. It's been going on since the dawn of time and will never stop. The political system is set up that way, whether it's right or wrong. Of course political parties will throw promises and money at seats they think will help them win an election. I live in a marginal Liberal seat and at the 2019 election Labor was going its hardest to win the seat. My seat is next door to an only slightly less marginal Liberal seat and Labor was targeting that as well. At the time I was on the committee of the junior part of a local footy club and we were all asked to attend a function at the club which would also be attended by the ALP candidates for both seats. They pledged that if the ALP was elected they would provide $500,000 in funding towards building new club rooms and facilities. IMO that is normal practice for an election but is that not a form of pork barrelling?

Anyway the Libs retained both seats; just. I reckon they will lose at least one of them next election though.
 
Sintiger said:
I have been in and around public sector boards for quite a few years now, under both Labor and LNP. Public sector Board appointments are done by an "independent body" but all I can say is that it is amazing the number of Board members who don't get nominated for another term who happen to be associated with the opposition party and then get replaced by someone who is. Spouses and ex-staffers of government MPs are particularly popular, all well qualified of course :cool:

It stinks
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the spouses *smile* me the most. The political classes are inbred. Only partners they can find are fellow travellers from a union or MPs office.
 
Ridley said:
Yeah I don't get the angst over pork barrelling. It's been going on since the dawn of time and will never stop. The political system is set up that way, whether it's right or wrong. Of course political parties will throw promises and money at seats they think will help them win an election. I live in a marginal Liberal seat and at the 2019 election Labor was going its hardest to win the seat. My seat is next door to an only slightly less marginal Liberal seat and Labor was targeting that as well. At the time I was on the committee of the junior part of a local footy club and we were all asked to attend a function at the club which would also be attended by the ALP candidates for both seats. They pledged that if the ALP was elected they would provide $500,000 in funding towards building new club rooms and facilities. IMO that is normal practice for an election but is that not a form of pork barrelling?

Anyway the Libs retained both seats; just. I reckon they will lose at least one of them next election though.
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Will you get the $500k this time?
 
22nd Man said:
Will you get the $500k this time?
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Ha ha no idea; I'm not involved at the club anymore because my son is not playing. But it wouldn't surprise at all if they made a similar commitment; it is definitely a seat the ALP will target.
 
Ridley said:
Yeah I don't get the angst over pork barrelling. It's been going on since the dawn of time and will never stop. The political system is set up that way, whether it's right or wrong. Of course political parties will throw promises and money at seats they think will help them win an election. I live in a marginal Liberal seat and at the 2019 election Labor was going its hardest to win the seat. My seat is next door to an only slightly less marginal Liberal seat and Labor was targeting that as well. At the time I was on the committee of the junior part of a local footy club and we were all asked to attend a function at the club which would also be attended by the ALP candidates for both seats. They pledged that if the ALP was elected they would provide $500,000 in funding towards building new club rooms and facilities. IMO that is normal practice for an election but is that not a form of pork barrelling?

Anyway the Libs retained both seats; just. I reckon they will lose at least one of them next election though.
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Of course it is..... according to the elitist media there should be a list of football clubs an their needs determined by a bureaucrat and then allocated from top down. But how much goes to football clubs is a political decision anyway, why not netball or Gymnastics? Aha create another PS department - Relative Sport Priorities. The the theatre people come in and say why not some for the Arts. mmmm yes we need a Cultural Preferences Department to assess the relative merits of the arts and physical recreation.

We elect politicians to cut through such crap.
 
Ridley said:
Ha ha no idea; I'm not involved at the club anymore because my son is not playing. But it wouldn't surprise at all if they made a similar commitment; it is definitely a seat the ALP will target.
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then I thought 500k per club or in total across every club in the electorate .... hard to pin them down.
 
Ridley said:
Yeah I don't get the angst over pork barrelling. It's been going on since the dawn of time and will never stop. The political system is set up that way, whether it's right or wrong. Of course political parties will throw promises and money at seats they think will help them win an election. I live in a marginal Liberal seat and at the 2019 election Labor was going its hardest to win the seat. My seat is next door to an only slightly less marginal Liberal seat and Labor was targeting that as well. At the time I was on the committee of the junior part of a local footy club and we were all asked to attend a function at the club which would also be attended by the ALP candidates for both seats. They pledged that if the ALP was elected they would provide $500,000 in funding towards building new club rooms and facilities. IMO that is normal practice for an election but is that not a form of pork barrelling?

Anyway the Libs retained both seats; just. I reckon they will lose at least one of them next election though.
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Election promises are one thing- the electorate gets to see all those and then decide. going to elections with funds, to say build needed train station car parks, then using those funds to reward held seats, or to help sway marginals, rather than building on need and efficiency is different.
 
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No more cutting down forests to dig up coal, Twiggy Forrest has been in SCoalMo's ear about Hydrogen, he has been born again !!
Morrison is now anti coal, or will be before too long.
 
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